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Temur Persist Creativity Primer: A.k.a. Rugby Creativity

Léo "Moudou" Bartolomé
01/06/2023 · 11 min read
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What the hell is Rugby?

Most european readers will know that rugby is a beautiful sport where thirty people run around with an oval-shaped ball in their hand and in the end, New Zealand wins. For our American readers, rugby is what happens when you take what you call “football” and replace the protection gear with extra muscle mass.

Now of course, this has nothing to do with actual rugby. But when your deck is Temur Black Persist Strike it Rich Creativity, you shorten it to RUGB Creativity, and if you were born in a rugby stronghold such as Toulouse like I was, it quickly devolves into Rugby Creativity. And honestly, considering the gameplay, it doesn’t feel out of touch.

Temur Persist Creativity has been around for a while, ever since Bitter Reunion came out in Brothers’ War, but it failed to shine like its cousins Jund Creativity and, more importantly, 5C Creativity. Nevertheless, it is secretly very consistent, showing up almost every week in MTGO 5-0 dumps.

The deck is basically a mix between the Temur Tempo and Jund Reanimator

The deck is basically a mix between the Temur Tempo and Jund Reanimator versions of Creativity. Remove the Tempo elements from the former, the proactive elements from the latter, and you have a proactive midrange deck that can put a threat on the table and protect its plan, with a healthier manabase than 5C Creativity.

The game plan is delightfully simple and fits really well in the shell. You can run a playset of Archons, Creativities, Prismari Command, Fable, Persist, Bitter Reunion, Wrenn and Six, Lightning Bolt and Spell Pierce, alongside 24 lands in a very standard configuration and you got yourself a deck with a clear goal in mind and several ways to get there while fighting hate. Add to this a very solid sideboard with the full wonders of the four colors you play, and there is no reason this deck can’t work.

So what is the difference between Temur Persist Creativity and Rugby Creativity? Strike it Rich. Let’s tackle the elephant in the room.

Strike It Rich

I have to say that I was, and still am, a strong denier that Creativity needs dedicated anti-Blood Moon cards in their sideboard. There are fewer and fewer of us, but I firmly believe that respecting Blood Moon through gameplay is far more efficient than respecting it through deckbuilding. Basically, as a great player and now fellow writer Remi Fortier  once taught me, you don’t sideboard against a card, you sideboard against a strategy. As such, it took a while for me to try out stuff like Abundant Growth, basic Plains or Strike it Rich in my sideboard.

But one day, I was discussing the bad Creativity match-ups with my teammates, and the conclusion was that while the Creativity shell has no issue winning Card Advantage wars, the bad match-ups were the ones where all that Card Advantage did not matter, and our best out was to turbo an Archon out ASAP. In other words, Mana Advantage was more important than Card Advantage in those match-ups. That’s when it hit me that the epitome of Mana Advantage over Card Advantage in Modern was probably Strike it Rich.

I was a little hesitant, as one would be upon stumbling on such an obvious and overlooked key to all your bad match-ups. But the more things went, the more it felt like I wasn’t alone. Why would you play Wrenn and Realmbreaker in Creativity, a deck with few appealing permanents to fish back and that cannot easily support its mana cost?

Because it helps against Blood Moon and gives non-boltable Creativity targets? Well then why not play Strike it Rich, easily discardable, far cheaper and easier on the mana ? McWinSauce, among others, was trying Big Score out, and this was the reasoning behind it:

Can’t help thinking all these arguments also apply, and better so, to Strike it Rich. So it does seem like most people are tiptoeing around the issue, and are willing to go to great lengths to shore up Creativity’s weaknesses. Why not give Strike it Rich an honest try?

I tried it out in the 5C Creativity sideboard, where it was fine but it felt underwhelming, mostly because you can’t really turbo out your Archons or your Teferis without hampering your manabase in the long run if things don’t go your way. It’s a tough sell in Temur Tempo Creativity as well, since this is a setup piece, not a tempo card, and that kind of goes against the grain of the deck. I tried it out in Jund Creativity, it was fine but the deck was so proactive already that it felt like a hat on a hat.

Strike it Rich does not allow a Creativity on turn 3. What it does allow is a turn 4 Creativity with 1-mana protection backup, or Bitter Reunion activation. The best 1 mana interaction to protect your combo is Spell Pierce, Flusterstorm and Veil of Summer. Thankfully, there is a version of Creativity that plays all of these cards and has a healthy manabase.

And that, kids, is how I played Rugby Creativity. A Creativity deck that puts an Archon in play, shoves it all the way while protecting it. Who needs Delver after all?

My current version of the deck

Much like the Temur Persist usual version, Rugby Creativity practically builds itself. You do want to alleviate the Persist plan, since if you really want to optimize that, Jund is usually the way to go. You want to be a little more reactive, so cutting 1 Bitter Reunion and 1 Persist is a great idea. Considering you are scaling back the Persist plan and Strike it Rich kind of does part of Prismari Command’s job, you can also cut one of those. And there you are:

Rugby Creativity. Builder: Moudou.MTGA - Magic Arena
Other in 30-May-2023
MTG Decks Maindeck (60)
Creature [8]
4  Fable of the Mirror-Breaker   $19.99
4  Archon of Cruelty   $12.99
Instant [11]
4  Lightning Bolt   $1.29
4  Spell Pierce   $0.79
3  Prismari Command   $0.79
Sorcery [10]
3  Strike It Rich   $0.49
3  Persist   $0.99
4  Indomitable Creativity   $9.49
Enchantment [3]
3  Bitter Reunion   $0.39
Planeswalker [4]
4  Wrenn and Six   $27.99
Land [24]
4  Scalding Tarn   $22.99
4  Wooded Foothills   $34.99
4  Bloodstained Mire   $27.99
4  Dwarven Mine   $0.39
1  Mountain   $0.01
1  Stomping Ground   $13.99
1  Blood Crypt   $17.99
2  Steam Vents   $17.99
1  Ketria Triome   $13.99
1  Ziatora's Proving Ground   $13.99
1  Boseiju, Who Endures   $54.99
Sideboard [15]
1  Iona, Shield of Emeria   $5.99
1  Boseiju, Who Endures   $54.99
2  Flusterstorm   $32.99
2  Aether Gust   $0.35
2  Nature's Claim   $1.79
2  Turn the Earth   $0.35
3  Veil of Summer   $6.49
2  Hidetsugu Consumes All   $3.49
Buy this deck:

$255.46 Tix @cardhoarder   $6.39 / Week @cardhoarder   $790.74 @tcgplayer   $928.91 @cardkingdom  


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Tips & Tricks: A quick How to Play

The deck is rather easy to play, really the way you would expect it. Here are a few extra notes, just in case.

#1 Fetching the right way

You should first fetch Ziatora’s Proving Ground, and then turn 2 fetch Steam Vents. This tends to be better than fetching Ketria Triome on your first turn, which is usually the case for other versions of Creativity, since you often want all four of your colors and can’t afford to ignore your black mana needs, even early-game.

#2 Digging through your deck

Strike it Rich has Flashback, making it easily discardable to Bitter Reunion, Fable and Prismari Command. Very useful when digging through your deck to find either the kill or the protection you want.

#3 Keep it simple

Strike it Rich + Wrenn and Six + Archon of Cruelty is a turn 6 Archon, turn 5 if you get Prismari Command or an attack with a Fable token. It might sound silly, but that’s usually good enough not to mulligan too hard with the deck.

#4 Killing Ragavans

Strike it Rich + Prismari Command is a turn 2 removal, which is why get off so easily with only 4 Bolts to respect Ragavan. Even in the blind, game one on the play against an unknown opponent, fetching a shockland to Strike it Rich turn 1 is a consideration if you have a Prismari Command in your hand.

Why should you play this version?

Rugby Creativity is exactly what you think Creativity is, it fits all the stereotypes and thrives in them. No experience required, no extra subtlety.

It’s easy to play. No hardcore manabase to worry about, just play your spells, find your kills and protect them, you’re good to go. The hardest decisions are always what to discard on your three outlets, and when to go for it. It doesn’t get a lot easier than that in Modern.

It’s well positioned. The usual Creativity shell is still very good at what it does, but Strike it Rich trades off some points against easy match-ups to shore up the bad match-ups that have risen in response to Creativity’s dominion. I firmly believe this is the best version of Creativity to fight off the combination of Yawgmoth, Living End, Burn, Rhinos and mirror that are currently roaming online. If your local Modern metagame consists of these decks, I highly recommend Rugby.

I honestly believe this is the best version of Creativity to beat the other Creativity versions

It completely wrecks the mirror. 5C Creativity is possibly the best deck in the format right now, so having a good win rate against it is a pretty good idea if you’re planning on going into any big event. Persist alone is a good mirror-breaker, but Persist and protection together are the bee’s knees. I honestly believe this is the best version of Creativity to beat the other Creativity versions.

Sideboard and plans

The sideboard is also very instinctive. There are probably a few pieces you can move around, but the gist of it should remain stable.

Here are my current plans. But to paraphrase a famous pirate, they are more guidelines than actual rules.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when adapting the plans:

  • The issue we most often run into is the Persist plan. It’s the most easily hateable part of the deck, but it’s also an important piece if your plan is to rush an Archon. You have to recognize when and if your opponent brought in graveyard hate, how relevant the Persist plan is to the match-up, and how it compares with the cards you are bringing in.
  • Removing an Archon is also a part of that conversation, are you willing to rely on Persist with only 3 Archons, do you want to remove some Archons to find Iona more easily, etc.
  • Strike it Rich is definitely on the table when it comes to outs, mostly against Blood Moon match-ups. Yes, I still stand firm, you don’t need any specific tech against Blood Moon, and some of the current Blood Moon decks (Murktide and Scam) are best fought with higher card quality than mana advantage. Consider going down to one or zero against them.
  • You can hardcast Iona, a great deal more than even with 5C Creativity, and you should not pass that opportunity. Remember that you can’t Persist it, so do keep that in mind when deciding to discard it.
  • When bringing in the extra Boseiju, you may or may not want to remove a land from your deck to compensate. This depends on how important your early land drops are. For instance, against Burn, you’d much rather land a Boseiju if that lets you develop your game plan than an active card you can’t cast, but against Murktide you probably won’t mind missing a land drop or two once you’ve managed their creatures. The land you remove is usually the basic Mountain, except against aggressive match-ups where you’d want to fetch that Mountain on turn 3, in which case you can safely remove a Steam Vents instead. The color requirements of the deck are very light and your treasures allow some permittivity, you can afford not to bleed if you don’t need to.
  • Hidetsugu Consumes All might sound unappealing to some of you, since that chapter 2 is a nombo with Persist. However, the fact of the matter is that for that nombo to have a negative impact, you would need to bin an Archon, then play HCA, then draw the Persist. However unlikely that is, HCA has such an impact on the game where it comes in that honestly, you just don’t even mind that much when the nombo happens. I think that with over 60 matches with Rugby Creativity, the nombo happened once only, and it didn’t matter. But if you’re irrationally terrified of the prospect of a nombo in your deck, there’s always the underwhelming Brotherhood’s End that could fit your standards.

The rest of the plans are rather intuitive and don’t require much explanation, Creativity is coming around to its first birthday now and while it has changed a lot since last summer, many things remain the same.

Conclusion

Rugby Creativity is not the best deck in Modern , that honour would have to befall upon 5C Creativity. But as the format shifts in a way to restrain 5C Creativity’s dominion, I sincerely believe that Rugby Creativity is the best metagame move you can make. With Murktide and Hammer slightly backing away and Yawgmoth and Cascade decks on the rise, having a deck that beats the mirror and the traditional bad match-ups for the deck is very appealing. I’ve enjoyed an 80% winrate over my 20 first matches with Rugby Creativity, and I think it’s a great option to keep in my back pocket in any case.

I highly recommend you give it a try, and consider Strike it Rich as a playable card not against Blood Moon but rather as a way to fail upwards in your worst match-ups. Try it in all versions of Creativity if you want, the experience was very eye-opening for me.

La bise!

If you liked this article maybe you will also find interesting on of the following ones Taking the Modern Challenge with Calibrated Blast: primer and sideboard guide, Getting ready for the Vintage Qualifier: Doomsday Cheatsheet & Sideboad Guide, Pioneer Boros Convoke Guide, Standard Domain Ramp - Deck & Side Guide, Standard Mono-red Aggro Deck & Sideboard Guide

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Léo "Moudou" Bartolomé
MTG Theory specialist
Moudou might not have many accomplishments to his name, but his numerous articles have helped many understand the basics of some of the most important theories in Magic. He now returns after a break to share some more timeless knowledge.

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Published: 2023-06-01 00:00:00
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